Isabella, Countess of Lennox

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Isabella of Lennox was the ruler of Lennox, 1437–1458. As the wife of Murdoch Stewart, she was Duchess of Albany (1420–1425) as well.

Isabella was the daughter of Donnchadh, Earl of Lennox and Helena, the daughter of Sir Archibald Campbell.

Her father Duncan needed to create powerful links with the great Robert Stewart, who was the bastard son of King Robert II, and who ruled much of Scotland. In 1392, Duncan agreed to marry Isabella to Robert's son, Murdoch.

Murdoch and Isabella had at least five children:

Robert (d. 1421)
Walter (d. 1425)
Alasdair (d. 1425)
James/Seamas Mòr (d. 1451)
Isabel, who married Sir Walter Buchanan, 13th Laird Buchanan

After her father and sons Walter and Alasdair were executed in 1425, Isabella was forced to spend eight years as a royal hostage at Tantallon Castle. In 1437 she recovered her lands and title. In the next few years, although forced to govern her province from Loch Lomond, she issued a large numbers of charters, was popular in the province, and was tolerated by James II.

However, when she died in 1458, the oldest continuous Gaelic mormaerdom came to an end.

[edit] Bibliography

Brown, Michael, "Earldom and Kindred: The Lennox and Its Earls, 1200-1458" in Steve Boardman and Alasdair Ross (eds.) The Exercise of Power in Medieval Scotland, c.1200-1500, (Dublin/Portland, 2003), pp. 201-224